Strings ARE attached, and, in fact, the Pacifica (string) Quartet practices together three hours every day. They are part of an array of music provided by Indiana University Jacobs School of Music this summer and will perform free of charge June 29. For saxophone music, IU’s Summer Saxophone Academy offers five free concerts July 5-9.
On June 29 experience Pacifica Quartet with Simin Ganatra, violin; Austin Hartman, violin; Mark Holloway, viola; Brandon Vamos, cello. IU piano faculty member Spencer Myer joins the group. Audience members will hear Franck: “Piano Quintet in F Minor” (1879) withadditional repertoire to be announced. See them 8-10 p.m. in Recital Hall, on the ground floor of Merrill Hall, 1201 E. Third Street.
One of today’s top chamber ensembles, Pacifica Quartet is known for its American quartet sound. For the past three decades, Pacifica Quartet, begun in 1994, has won global appreciation. In 2012 it became Jacobs School’s faculty string quartet-in-residence. Before that, Pacifica was quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and recently earned its second Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance for “Contemporary Voices” (2020), featuring the works of three Pulitzer Prize-winning women. In 2017 Pacifica was chosen to lead the Center for Advanced Quartet Studies at the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Among other honors, Pacifica has conquered chamber music’s most prestigious competitions, including the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. In 2002, the group took the Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award and the appointment to Lincoln Center’s The Bowers Program. In 2006 it won an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Also supporting contemporary music, Pacifica commissions and performs new works, including compositions by Keeril Makan, Julia Wolfe and Shulamit Ran. Pacifica has recorded the Carter cycle (Naxos) and the Shostakovich cycle (Cedille Records); additional recording work includes Leo Ornstein’s piano quintet with Marc-André Hamelin.
Before Jacobs, Pacifica was on the faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for nine years, and its members were resident performing artists at the University of Chicago for 17 years.
Violinist Austin Hartman: ‘We are so lucky’
Austin Hartman, professor of practice (string chamber music, violin) at the Jacobs School and a member of the Pacifica Quartet, is a chamber musician and soloist who performs throughout the U.S. and abroad.
As a soloist, he won the Stulberg International Competition and made two appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has worked with celebrated artists, including members of the Cleveland, Shanghai, Tokyo, Vermeer and Juilliard quartets as well as with pianist Orli Shaham and cellist Mark Kosower. As first violinist and founding member of the Biava Quartet, Hartman won the Naumburg Award and also top prizes at the Premio Borciani and London international competitions.
Hartman has recorded for the Albany, Naxos, and Cedille labels, and has been heard on London’s BBC Radio 3. Among other activities he was assistant professor of violin at the University of Indianapolis. He has earned Artist Diplomas from The Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music as well as degrees from New England Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music.
“I have a dream job,” Hartman said over the phone. “A quartet is the perfect combination. I wish everybody could play in a string quartet. You learn to get along, be kind, to understand others. And to be honest and caring. We are so lucky.”
“For us, Beethoven is sort of our pinnacle. He put so much of his soul into his quartets.”
Part of the joy for Hartman is sharing information his teachers taught him. “I like to show others the beauty in all of this. I feel like a curator in an art museum with my students.”
The Pacific Quartet oversees 30 IU student quartets, so Hartman and his colleagues have plenty of opportunity to show students—as he said– “how to see the dots and dashes” of a composer’s work turn into music.
Violist Mark Holloway” ‘It’s like cooking’
Chamber musician and violist Mark Holloway is an IU Jacobs professor of practice (string chamber music, viola) and member of Pacific Quartet. As an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has performed in festivals and series such as Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, Caramoor, Banff, Taos, Music from Angel Fire, Mainly Mozart and the Boston Chamber Music Society.
He plays regularly at chamber music festivals in France, Musikdorf Ernen in Switzerland, and at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England. He has often performed as a guest with the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus, and the Metropolitan Opera orchestras. Holloway has been, among other positions, principal violist at Tanglewood and of the New York String Orchestra and has played as a guest with the Boston Symphony and guest principal of the American Symphony.
“One of the most difficult things about playing in an ensemble is trying to imagine what your contribution to the group sounds like at a distance, even though you can never be in the audience yourself to hear how you sound,” he said.
Fitting the many pieces together, is complicated, he said. The instruments’ voices must balance so audiences can hear the theme. “It requires concentration and constant minute adjustments. It’s like when you’re cooking, you’re always tasting the dish you’re preparing and adjusting seasoning right up to the moment the food goes on the table!”
Before the first rehearsal Pacifica members have already studied and practiced their parts, learning the score, discerning how each part relates to the whole. “We want to be able to have all the freedom in the world while performing, so body language and breathing together help us to align, as well as relying on our muscle memory and the training we’ve gone through in the rehearsal process. Thanks to copious rehearsal time and planning, “if something small accidentally falls out of sync, we can very quickly get back on track, hopefully without anyone but us noticing.”
One of Holloway’s mentors was Michael Tree, violist of Guarneri Quartet, with whom Holloway studied. “I learned so many musical and technical things from him about playing the viola, . . .. Even more importantly, however, he was a wonderful person who modeled goodness for me — he was giving, kind, patient and helpful, a real mensch. I think about him very often and try to be the same for my students and colleagues.”
Spencer Myer to play with Pacifica
Spencer Myer is associate professor of music (piano) at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he received a 2024 Trustees Teaching Award. He is one of the most popular artists on current concert stages. Terms such as “superb playing” and “poised, alert musicianship” (Boston Globe) and “definitely a man to watch” (The Independent) describehis, orchestral, recital, and chamber music performances. Find more about Myer at http://spencermyer.com.
Visit pacificaquartet.com for more information about the quartet.
5 free Summer Saxophone Academy concerts
Music from five concerts July 5 -9 will stir the air with saxophone vibes, thanks to IU Jacobs’ Saxophone Academy, directed by Tom Walsh and Otis Murphy. Starting the week, on July 5 in IU’s Auer Hall, world famous duo Otis Murphy and his wife, Haruko Murphy (piano), perform. The week ends with a student concert at 7 p.m. July 10 in IU’s Recital Hall, on the ground floor of Merrill Hall, 1201 E. Third Street.
In between, audiences will hear additional performers such as Tom Walsh, Angela Space and Paul Lorenz.
For students ages 14-18, the Saxophone Academy provides a one-week intensive saxophone experience. Students receive four one-on-one lessons in classical and / or jazz and take technique classes, master classes and play in saxophone quartets. Students choose between participating in Saxophone Ensemble or Jazz Workshop, and concerts feature faculty and staff.
“Most of our students this year are interested in classical saxophone,” said co-director (with Otis Murphy) Tom Walsh, adding that some years it’s more jazz-slanted. “I sent students questionnaires asking if they’d like to do classical, jazz or both.” There are no auditions for the student program: Walsh asks students to send a “placement recording” so he and Murphy can decide which groups might be the right fit.
“We give lessons in the mornings, Walsh said over the phone. “In the afternoons the saxophone quartets rehearse, and in the evenings the students have the option to choose a large (10-12) saxophone ensemble or a jazz workshop.”
Walsh and Murphy select a small group to play as soloists.
Walsh is professor of music in saxophone and chair of the department of Jazz Studies at IU Jacobs.
Performing both jazz and classical music, he has presented concerts and workshops in China, Brazil, Japan, Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Azerbaijan, Costa Rica and throughout the U.S. His work includes Scott Jones’ concert band arrangement of Russell Peck’s “The Upward Stream” (2013), Chris Rutkowski’s “Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble” (2008) and David Baker’s “Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra” (2004).
“My education is equally split between classical and jazz,” Walsh said. “I like variety.”
Find more about the Jacobs Academy at https://jacobsacademy.indiana.edu/descriptions/saxophone-academy.html.
Summer Saxophone Academy free concert schedule
July 5 Saxophone Academy Faculty Concert
8-10 p.m. Auer Hall, on the second floor of the Simon Music Center, 200 S. Eagleson Ave.
July 6 Saxophone Academy Faculty Concert, Auer Hall
8:30 – 10 p.m.
July 7 Saxophone Academy Faculty Concert, Auer Hall
8:30 – 10 p.m.
Jul. 8 Saxophone Academy Staff Concert
8:30 – 10 p.m. Ford-Crawford Hall, on the second floor of the Simon Music Center, 200 S. Eagleson Ave.
Jul. 9 Saxophone Academy Closing Concert
7– 10 p.m. Recital Hall, on the ground floor of Merrill Hall, 1201 E. Third St.
Visit IU https://music.indiana.edu/news-events/events/index.html.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Strings and saxophones part of IU Jacobs’ free summer music
Reporting by Connie Shakalis, For the Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Connie Shakalis, For the Herald-Times | USA TODAY Network
